WHARNCLIFFE

Wharncliffe has long had a bit of a rogue reputation as a grim place to climb owing to its slightly urban location overlooking the upper Don Valley and the steel rolling mills of Stocksbridge. As you can see from the photo-topos, this is just rumour mongering by the locals who want to keep the place to themselves; well their cover has been blown! The main section of cliff has routes across the full grade spectrum and, although many only rise to 12m in height, they are usually action-packed and quite intense. The climbing tends to be steep and fingery, with many small sharp holds rather than the roundedness of true gritstone. The grades here have long been regarded as being on the tough side and we have made some effort to redress this. One rumour that is true is that the landings are awful; make a point of getting an early runner in, small Friends are especially useful in this respect! Wharncliffe was very significant at the birth of British outcrop climbing with J.W.Puttrell first scratching the rock here with his nailed boots back in 1885. By 1900, and due in large part to the nearby railway line, Wharncliffe was the most popular cliff in the country. An article published in 1910 described 110 separate routes here. The heady days have never returned and a century on Wharncliffe is a place to escape the crowds that have become so much of climbing elsewhere in the Peak; strange to think that the place is probably less popular now than it was 100 years ago, surely the only venue in Britain where this can be said.